Yarncat Fiber Trip 2009 (4) MardiLaat Craft Fair, Tallinn

I didn't even know about the Craft Fair until the German knitters told me they came to Tallinn explicitly for this.

I asked my Estonian friend Helen what it was all about, she said, "ah, it's just craft stuff, nobody cares..." Then I told myself, "that's what usually the native says about interesting things. I used to say the same thing about Eiffel Tower, I'll go and have a look".

The fair is a bit outside the city centre of Tallinn in the Saku Suurhall stadium. But Helen's driving class is in the area, so we go there together. She goes to her class and I go to my fair.

The moment I enter the fair, I am so glad that I came! Look at this!

Everything is traditional Estonian and with your trained knitters' eye, you should have spotted YARN already, haven't you?

Before going crazy on the yarn stuff, let's have a look at the other passion of mine, food! They are all local products from farms, I already know what I was going to eat for lunch, hehehe...

Here you have this nice gentleman selling traditional Estonian smoked meat and sausages...

Ok, we can't wait any longer, we have to look at YARN! This year's theme apparently is about weaving, they decorated the venue of a lot of weaving stuff...

Look! KNITTING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Notice that she is actually starting an Estonian shawl?

Of course, there is yarn everywhere!

This lady made really nice Estonian gloves with traditional embroidery. I don't normally buy gloves made by other people because of knitter's pride, but I know I can't do embroidery like that, so I decided to support the knitter and bought a pair. The blue flower on this pair of gloves that she is holding is the Estonian national flower.

Here you have spinning, notice the people are wearing traditional Estonian clothes?

No, I didn't buy the whole fleece, no...

Felting...

Weaving...

Here you have some finished products, Estonian traditional weaving used in a modern context...

Apart from different kinds of fiber arts, there are other crafts in the fair too. Like traditional Estonian music, I don't know how to call this instrument, I wish someone can tell me.

There are quite a few of metalwork counters too...

(more photos to come tomorrow...)

Yarncat Fiber Trip 2009 (3) The other half?

After the Stitch and Bitch, I decided to walk back to my hotel. While I was poking my nose into different shop windows on the way, I saw this...

I guess someone really got a sense of humour in Tallinn, two lost gloves make one pair...

Yarncat Fiber Trip 2009 (2) Stitch and Bitch Tallinn

There is no official Stitch and Bitch in Tallinn, but through Ravelry, we managed to meet up with some Estonian knitters. There were also some German knitters (Susann and Petra, hello!) who happened to be in town as well. So we all got together in Pronksi yarn shop in De la Gardie shopping centre.

We had so much fun together and Anu (the owner of the shop, the one who has blond hair in the photo) is really really nice. There are so many variety of yarn in the shop and many of them are in the cones. The price is also very reasonable. Next time when you are in Tallinn, make sure to check it out.

Yarncat Fiber Trip 2009(1) LYS in Tallinn, Estonia

So I arrived in Tallinn, Estonia.

Growing up in the 80s, I spent my childhood watching Estonian rally to fight for their independance on the TV. Little Yarncat thought, 'this place seems to be so cold and so much chaos, I will NEVER go to places like that...' But you can never know in life. It turns out I met an Estonian girl the first day I arrived in Paris to start my European life. We have been good friends ever since. She has been asking me to go there to visit for years but I have yet done so. Now that I have decided to go on the self-employed path, I have more flexibility on my schedule. I can decide whenever I want to be on holiday. So there I go, to Tallinn to see my friend (and yarn...).

My fiber trip started from Tallinn, Estonia.
The first day I arrived to Tallinn, my friend (non-knitter) was already very well aware of the purpose of my trip===> YARN!

So my friend brought me here...

The lady who runs the shop is amazing knitter (she was knitting when I got in) and they have a huge selection of yarn from different nordic countries, Estonia, Norway, Finland, etc. The atmosphere in the shop is very nice and modern. Half of the shop is devoted to sell knitted items, Estonian shawl, sweater, hats, etc.

The shop is very crochet-friendly and felting-friendly as well. There are a lot of felting fiber and felting finished products on display.

To be honest with you, I don't remember EXACTLY the address of Joller Craft and Wool since it is in the Old Town and all the little streets are very confusing. But I can tell you it is around Väike-Karja. Go and ask people around that area, it really worths the while because the surprise is...there are two shops across the street of each other!

Across Joller, there is another yarn shop which is more old-fashioned, there are a lot of novelty yarn and stuff. But if you are into stocking up on needles, they have a huge selection upstairs. You have to ask the people downstairs to show you up in their warehouse. Addi Turbo is like 4 Euros a pair.

Knitting and Stitching Show Dublin 2009

Since I started my own cat care business, I am very well aware of the fact that holiday seasons will be the peak time of my business. I probably won't be able to spend as much time celebrating holidays anymore and even less travelling. So I decided to take a break in November and do stuff I like, which at the end, leads me to take part in whole series of yarn-related events.

I started my yarn holiday by attending a workshop at the Knitting and Stitching Show Dublin 2009.

I have attended the Lucet workshop by the Lucet master Ziggy Rytka.

The class was fun and opened my eyes to a new craft. I am looking forward to use some cords in my knitting and sewing projects in the future.

The surprising news is, I didn't even get much yarn from the show this year. First of all, there are still yarn from last year's show in my stash. More importantly, I was going to Estonia to see my friends and will visit Latvia and Finland. I knew I would have more than enough yarn to buy during this trip! (It turned out I got more than I thought I would of course...) I will tell you all about the trip in the coming days, there will be knitting tram event and knitting supermarkets I visited and so much more!

Cork City continued

The second day during our stay in Cork City, we have visited the university...

And we ran into more cats...

This is probably the biggest can of Beamish I will ever see in my life...

After passing by the Beamish factory, it reminds us to have our one drink too! The big one for the Man and the small one for Yarncat...

Cork City

So that's where we stayed in Cork.

We got a really nice view from our window. Very calm and peaceful. To me, it is very European.







The next day, as usual, we just like to relax and walk around the city. We went to the English Market.









There is even a joke store, it is so Irish.



We also walked around the market place...



there we've found them...



Can't see what I mean? There they are...



Next time, if you pass by this shop in Cork, say hi to them...